NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 4 – As e-commerce continues to expand in the country, Safaricom has now launched ‘Lipa Na M-PESA online,’ a payment service that will allow customers to pay for goods and services online.
To process the payment, a customer will be required to key in the mobile phone number on the service’s site for the money to be deducted from his or her M-PESA account.
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said Kenya has in recent times witnessed remarkable growth in online payments driven by efficiency and Internet penetration hence the need to provide more payment solutions/CFM
For traders who accept the payment through ‘Lipa Na M-PESA Online’, they will have to receive specific registration.
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said Kenya has in recent times witnessed remarkable growth in online payments driven by efficiency and Internet penetration hence the need to provide more payment solutions.
“When you go online to make some payments, M-PESA now becomes one of the options. We are considering that many Kenyans may not have credit cards but have M-PESA accounts,” Collymore said during the launch.
The service will only apply to customers with M-PESA accounts and may not be applicable outside the country.
The new ‘Lipa Na M-PESA Online’ comes as the company works to not only push for the growth of the recently launched ‘Lipa Na M-PESA’ service, but also expand the options available for the customer on the M-PESA product.
“The new service will leverage the deep penetration of the mobile phone and the proliferation of Internet services to ease the shopping experience for customers while allowing merchants to match their goods and services directly to consumers,” Collymore noted.
Kenya is experiencing one of the fastest growth rates of mobile phone and Internet penetration anywhere in Africa.
An estimated 29.7 million Kenyans have mobile phones, while about 14.3 million have access to the Internet.
